Truck operating hours have been severely restricted during North Korea’s nationwide mobilization to help with rice planting, hitting people’s livelihoods hard.
A source in South Hwanghae province told Daily NK recently that most trucks haven’t been allowed to start work until 4 p.m. because of the rice transplanting happening across the country right now.
The delayed hours don’t just apply to vehicles officially registered with city and county passenger and freight services, but also to buses and trucks run for profit by various organizations.
Anyone caught driving a truck before 4 p.m. during rice planting season has to do half a day of farm labor as punishment.
More checkpoints setup
In past years, military trucks and buses weren’t stopped even during rice transplanting. But this year, no organizations—not even the military—are getting a pass.
“Before, vehicles with military plates instead of civilian plates would get waved through during rice planting, but not this year. Truck regulations have gotten much stricter,” the source said.
In Haeju, South Hwanghae province, monitoring teams have been posted at bus and truck parking areas near the provincial performing arts center and people’s culture center since rice transplanting began.
Vehicle traffic is being tightly controlled by so-called No. 10 checkpoints run by the Ministry of State Security, including the Sinwon and Changbang checkpoints on the road from Sariwon to Haeju and the Singwang and Pyoksong checkpoints on the road from Haeju to the southern coast. Since most of these checkpoints are in farming areas, any drivers who get stopped are immediately put to work transplanting rice.
“One guy got pulled over recently coming back from Ongjin county. He figured nobody would mess with him in a military vehicle, but he still got fined and had to work six hours in the fields before they let him go. With so many stories like that going around, people think it’s better not to hire trucks during the day even if they’re available,” the source said.
Officials demand bribes
But some drivers who get caught can buy their way out with a bribe.
“While everyone who’s not on official business is supposed to get sent to the fields, sometimes you can get out of it with a bribe. That’s got some people complaining that the real reason for all this traffic control by monitors and checkpoints is to squeeze more bribes out of people,” the source said.
“The only people who actually wait until 4 p.m. to drive their trucks are the ones who can’t afford to pay a bribe. In the end, the farm assistance period is especially tough on the poorer half of society.”
